Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Chicken

Use this sweet and spicy chicken recipe for your weekly meal prep or as the main course for dinner! It is incredibly versatile and healthy. There are so many ways to enjoy it, and it's so tasty that you'll probably come with some new ones.

This is a seriously delicious chicken recipe. It's has a touch of sweetness from the brown sugar and a little salty from the soy sauce, with just enough heat from the Asian chili garlic paste. Serve it with some sesame sugar snap peas and steamed rice and you have a dinner everyone will go crazy for.

In fact, if you were in my kitchen last night, you would have witnessed us messily eating it out right out of the slow cooker while we waited for the rice to finish up. It wasn't a pretty sight, but it was too good to wait!

The leftovers are also amazing so it's easy to get two meals out of this recipe. Today, you would have seen me stuffing it into lettuce wraps with some mandarin oranges, shredded cabbage, and chopped cashews. It seriously makes delicious lettuce wraps!

This slow cooker chicken recipe is super easy to make and is really popular with various foods and meals.

Key Ingredients and Easy Swaps

There are lots of ways that you can customize this recipe for a different twist on the flavor each time.

Here's what I used:

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs: I decided to use boneless and skinless chicken thighs because I wanted to make sure the chicken stayed nice and moist. Chicken breast would also work, as would pork tenderloin or a lean, trimmed pork shoulder.
• Soy Sauce: If you want to keep it gluten-free, you can use tamari or liquid aminos.
• Brown Sugar: I love how the brown sugar caramelizes in this sauce. You could also replace it with honey or agave syrup.
• Asian Garlic Chili Sauce: This adds some delightful heat to the dish! If you like things spicy, add a touch more.
• Garlic Cloves: Whenever you cook things on the stove, use fresh garlic cloves instead of garlic powder or garlic salt. It will produce the best aroma and flavor for the dish.
• Ginger: Just like with garlic, ginger has the most flavor when you mince fresh ginger root.

What To Serve With Sweet And Spicy Chicken

This is the best part about this recipe - you can serve it in so many ways!

It tastes fantastic on a bed of brown rice. You could also eat it on top of some cauliflower rice. It's also flavorful enough to eat on its own with some just steamed veggies or put it inside some lettuce wraps.

The options are pretty much endless!

This is the perfect slow cooker recipe to use for your meal prep the rest of the week. Just cook it, shred it, and then store it in your meal prep containers. It will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Recipe Tips And Ideas

Follow these tips to make sure that this chicken turns out juicy every single time!

• Reduce the cooking liquid. This creates a fantastic sauce/drizzle for the chicken, and it's worth the extra 15 minutes.
• Adjust the spices to your liking. If you taste it and want it spicier, add more chili sauce or a splash of hot sauce.
• You can use dried ginger instead of fresh, but the taste will be milder, so use more.
• This recipe also works great with lean pork, turkey breast, or chicken breast.
• If you want to make this a more complete meal, then add some green beans, sugar snap peas, or broccoli during the last 30 minutes of cooking. The veggies will cook right in the sauce. Then just grab a bag of frozen or pre-cooked rice and dinner is done.